


Geniuses

by decotex



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Other, massive egos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 12:24:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8489560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decotex/pseuds/decotex
Summary: Tony Stark and Doctor Strange have run in the same circles for years.Feat. Avengers-themed Monopoly, chess, and enormous egos.





	

LAKEWOOD INNOVATION AWARDS - LOS ANGELES - 2007

\---

“Strange.”

“Stark.”

“Two words often found together.”

Tony held out his hand.

“Pleasure to meet you, Doctor. Big fan of your work.”

Strange accepted the handshake with the hand that was not holding champagne. “Likewise. I’m honored to be nominated with you.”

“Honor’s all mine. Correct me if I’m wrong, but a little bird tells me you’ve just received a very prestigious award. The Benson Prize? Not quite the Nobel, but hey, you’re well on your way. _”_

Strange dipped his head, modestly. “Oh, you heard?”

“Well, my lovely assistant heard. And then she told me. But when I heard I was very impressed.”

“You know, Stark,” said Strange, staring somewhere above his head. “I was so excited when I heard that you’d been nominated as well. People in my field- the field of saving lives- don’t usually get the chance to mingle with-”

“Geniuses?” Tony cut in.

“Warmongers. ”

“So that’s how it is. Well, call me a murderer, Strange- and believe me, I’ve been called worse, _today_ \- but the fact is that we were both nominated for the Lakewood Award in Scientific Innovation. Guess that means we’re both life savers. Some of us on a more _global_ scale than others.”

“It’s funny, Stark- people just aren’t _vocal_ enough about how much they love weapons manufacturers. Never really get the philanthropic clout they deserve. It’s all wasted on firefighters and doctors and those people who hand out peanuts on airplanes.”

“Guy I knew at MIT went on to be a firefighter. Cool guy. Fan of craft beer. Last I heard, he’s putting out barn fires in Ohio. Saves on average, I’d have to guess, two pigeons a month. You know how many American lives my tech has saved? More than two pigeons worth. ”

“Well that’s interesting because while I was getting my Ph.D. in neuroscience- which I, by the way, went on to actually _complete-_ I also knew a someone who later became a firefighter. Died in an electrical fire. Hero.”

“Are we really playing ‘whose is bigger?’ A degree is a piece of paper. I elected to spend my time furthering science. Innovating, one might say.”

“Yes, the research I did on brain surgery in my Ph.D. were _such_ a waste.”

They’d stepped closer to each other and dropped the polite smiles.

“I would _love_ to play you in a game of chess,” said Tony.

“Oh?” Strange checked his watch. “We have time before the big announcement. I’m sure we could manage something.”

“Dad wouldn’t let me play chess as a kid,” confessed Tony. “Said it was too nerdy.”

“So you’re saying you decline?”

“I’m _saying_ let me Google the rules and meet me at the table near the bar.”

\---

Strange won the first game. Tony won the second. They were halfway through the third when the announcer called the nominees to the stage.

“Well Strange,’ said Tony, turning off the holographic chess set projected by his phone. “You’re a real asshole.”

“How sweet of you to say.”

“But you do a good brain surgery. Your single redeeming quality.”

“Saving lives,” said Strange. “My one, minor, redeeming quality.”

“Real pair of life savers we are.”

“Genius life savers, dare I call us.”

They walked up the steps to the stage.

“Yeah. I make bombs, you fix brains. Together we fight crime.”

\---

5 YEARS LATER - TAYLOR & SPRUCE CASINO - 2012

\---

Two Murcielagos- one grey, one yellow- were parked in the driveway of the casino.

Their owners arrived at the same time.

“Stark.”

“Strange.” Tony paused. “God. Every time I hear your name, I think of a new childhood insult.”

“I’ve seen you in the news. You’ve been busy. So you fly around in a metal suit now?”

“Yeah,” said Tony, a little quietly, a little distractedly, like maybe there was more going on in his life than there had been a few years ago, like maybe there was something deeper to Tony Stark now. “It’s been . . . _different.”_

“Well,” said Strange, waving him off and taking the keys from the valet. “We’ve got to have a rematch sometime. You were just getting good.”

“As long as there’s more wine. You were just getting tolerable.”

\---

4 YEARS LATER - UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE - 2016

\---

When the meeting was over, people filtered out of the conference room and into the lounge outside.

Two people who had been eyeing each other across the table all afternoon met in the hallway.

“Strange.”

“Stark.”

“Deja vu. Just me? Okay. I guess you don’t get that kind of thing anymore. Since you’ve, like.” Tony waved his arms around his head. “Transcended.”

“May I speak with you?”

Strange said it so seriously and genuinely that Tony was actually thrown off.

“Sure,” said Tony, finally. “Yeah. You haven’t transcended alcohol, have you?”

\---

Tony had a penthouse in Washington D.C., for unexpected situations and for when he didn’t feel like flying home after being chewed out by the government.

“Come in,” said Tony, stepping inside the foyer. “Err . . . may I take your coat?”

“It rather takes itself,” said Strange. He motioned with his head and the coat whipped itself off his shoulders, hanging itself on the wall.

“Is it bad that I’m totally okay with that?” asked Tony, leading Strange towards the kitchen.

“Not at all.”

“These past few years have ruined me. I don’t question anything anymore. Some scientist I am. Dude’s coat is partially sentient and makes him levitate? Sure. Okay.”

“I don’t understand it myself, really.”

“Yeah? The great Doctor Strange doesn’t understand something? What’s that like?”

Strange gave him a familiar look. “ . . . _Different.”_

“Sounds serious,” said Tony. “Would you care for some wine?”

“Absolutely. Would you care for a rematch?”

“I don’t think I have chess.”

“What about-” Strange made swiping motions with his hand.

“I’m running a new AI. Long story. Weird story. Basically it’s still learning. So I don’t have chess. But I think I’ve got a set of _Avengers ™ Monopoly_ somewhere here.”

\---

Within a short amount of time, Doctor Strange and Tony Stark were both partially drunk and both very invested in a game of monopoly.

“Banner’s Lab. I own it. Your turn.”

“ . . . S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters. I own it? No, you own it.”

“Thirty-five dollars.”

“Tell you what- I’ll sell you Avengers Tower for Howard Stark’s Lab plus Captain America’s Shield. You’ll have all the blues.”

Strange had lost his shoes and his outer robe at some point, which was unusual because he was generally very put together. Tony had lost his sports jacket and tie and shoes and belt, which was not at all unusual.

“So tell me, really,” said Tony, as he was counting his cash. “What’s it like?”  
  
“What?”

“You know.” Tony waved his arms around.

“To look like an idiot? I wouldn’t know.”

“That cape says differently, my friend.”

“It’s a magic cape. It makes me fly.”

“So do my thrusters, plus they make me look cool as hell. Anyway what I meant was, what’s it like to _have magic?”_

Strange rolled his eyes. “I don’t _have-_ It’s not the way you think, like I was normal and then one day I was infused with magic in some sort of, some sort of ritual, and then suddenly I became a _magic_ man. It’s not like a suit that I take on and off.”

“Well, it’s not like that for me either,” said Tony, frowning.

There was a moment.

“Would you like to see?” asked Strange.

“God yes.”

Strange started drawing a rune with his hands, but before he could finish, Tony grabbed his wrist.

“That’s . . . not what I meant.”

Strange froze, and then allowed Tony to lower his hand and stare at it as it shook.

“It’s not so bad,” said Tony, finally.

“I was a neurosurgeon,” Strange said plainly.

“And I was a billionaire playboy warmonger.”

On the table, Tony's first arc reactor glowed blue. 

“And we were geniuses," said Strange.

Tony held Strange’s hand with both of his, keeping it steady.  

“And we fight crime.”

**Author's Note:**

> : D
> 
> I have real shaky hands so this film fucking killed me. 
> 
> Superheroes with giant egos are my shit.


End file.
